Marianne into Battle: Republican imagery and symbolism in France 1789-1880

Since the French Revolution, the allegorical figure variously known as "France", "the Republic", or "Marianne", has had a dual role as a visual image of the nation (like Britannia in Britain),and as the symbol of the French Republic as a specific political regime. This political role explains the vigorous debates over the image, its endowment with the attributes of the traditional allegory of Liberty, and its popular personification under the name of Marianne. The eventful political history of the nineteeth century in France is reflected in an equally complex history of the visual representation of the Republican regime and ideal. In his analysis of this history Professor Agulhon draws not only the works of artists and writers - both famous and obscure - but also on the many manifestations of popular culture in prints, cartoons, and songs. By utilising this wide range of sources, and showing the relationships between politics, art, and popular folklore, he brings to bear on one historical question a range of political, artistic and anthropological insights. This book will be valued not only as a fascinating account of French political and cultural hisotry in the nineteenth century, but also as a model example of interdisciplinary history.